Marco Rubio Is Taking a Hatchet to Chinese Student Visas. It's a Great Way to Purge Spies.

Matt Vespa | May 29, 2025 12:35 AM

Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio is giving Chinese students with visas ample warming: his office will go over all their applications with a fine-toothed comb. If we have people who are members of the CCP or studying in certain fields, they’re gone. It’s not some revamping of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The move is a long overdue purge of spies who have for too long gamed the student visa system to infiltrate our country (via NBC News):

The United States will start “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
The announcement is the latest move in the Trump administration’s campaign against U.S. universities and international students in particular, after it revoked thousands of students’ visas, detained or deported other students over political activism and sought to bar international students from enrolling at Harvard University.
Rubio said in a statement that visa criteria would also be revised to “enhance scrutiny” of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students,” he said.